Last week, US Representative Michele Bachmann’s penchant for offensive absurdity exploded into a national media circus when she and four other representatives alleged that Huma Abedin, aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, had infiltrated the Federal government on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Probably noticing how dangerous such allegations are for their party’s reputation, prominent Republicans were quick to condemn the attacks as dangerous and un-American. John McCain called the attacks “specious and degrading,” and John Boehner said, “accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.”

Bachmann’s former campaign manager Ed Rollins called her claim “extreme and dishonest” and said, “I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.”

But one prominent Republican was conspicuously silent on the matter. Can you guess who?

If you guessed Mitt Romney, you were correct. Not only did Romney the man stay silent, his campaign also had nothing to say. No one in the mainstream media, with the exception of Hardball’s Chris Matthews, seems to have noticed. And Matthews only mentioned it in passing.

Of course, Romney has a history of capitulating to extremism in his own party. A big fuss was made when Romney stood by silently while a supporter accused President Obama of treason at a town hall. So why hasn’t the media noticed Romney’s conspicuous silence about Bachmann’s allegations?

Surely, because of their prominent positions and the magnitude of their accusations, Bachmann and her cronies are more worthy of condemnation than some crank at a town hall? Or is Romney so desperate for support that he won’t even stand up to racism and bigotry in his own party?

Romney has again demonstrated a startling lack of leadership and an inability to stand up to bigots like Michele Bachmann. He wouldn’t even stand with six other members of his own party to condemn Bachmann’s accusations against Huma Abedin and Keith Ellison.

If he can’t stand up to Bachmann and the Tea Party, how can we expect him to stand up to the leaders of rogue states like Iran and North Korea?

Last week, Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other members of Congress (Reps. Gohmert R-TX, Franks R-AZ, Rooney R-FL, and Westmoreland R-GA, who, with the exception of Rooney, are all members of the Tea Party Caucus) sent a letter to top US intelligence and security officials alleging that the Muslim Brotherhood had secret access to top Obama administration officials.

In the letter, Bachmann and company accused Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and others of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and attempting to infiltrate the US government.

I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.

To their credit, many prominent Republicans have condemned these attacks. John McCain (R-AZ) said, “These attacks on Huma have no logic, no basis, and no merit. They need to stop now” and called Bachmann’s claim “specious and degrading.”

Ed Rollins, Bachmann’s campaign manager for her failed bid for the 2012 Republican nomination, wrote in an op-ed for Fox News:

Her unsubstantiated charge against Abedin, a widely respected top aide to Secretary Hillary Clinton, accusing her of some sort of far-fetched connection to the Muslim brotherhood, is extreme and dishonest.

Having worked for Congressman Bachman’s campaign for president, I am fully aware that she sometimes has difficulty with her facts, but this is downright vicious and reaches the late Senator Joe McCarthy level.

Refusing to be cowed, Bachmann doubled down on Wednesday, saying she will “not be silent as this administration appeases our enemies instead of telling the truth about the threats our country faces.”

Speaker of the House John Boehner has since defended the reputation of Huma Abedin, saying, “from everything I do know of her, she has a sterling character. And I think accusations like this being thrown around are pretty dangerous.”

Sadly, this is just the latest in a string of anti-Muslim incidents associated with the Tea Party. The Williamson County Republicans of Tennessee recently wrote a letter to the Republican Governor of Tennessee, Bill Haslam, opposing the Governor’s recent appointment of Samar Ali as the international director at the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

They [the Haslam Administration] seem willing to accept the claims and defense of the Muslim Brotherhood at face value, refusing to even consider that, perhaps, those bent on destroying Western Civilization might just be infiltrating our institutions. … It is not like this has never happened before. The Muslim Brotherhood is following the blueprint of the Communists, who infiltrated the highest levels of government and society in the 1950’s. Shariah, however, is an even greater threat, because it has cloaked itself under the auspices of a religion, thus confusing the uninformed.

This letter doesn’t even try to disguise its similarities to McCarthyism. In fact, it seems the Williamson County Republicans are actually endorsing exactly that sort of witch-hunt.

Representative Bachmann and her Tea Party “Patriots” have been promoting their bigoted, anti-Muslim, authoritarian agenda for too long. Their personal attacks on individuals, merely because they share the same religion or heritage as the Muslim Brotherhood, fly in the face of the principles upon which this nation was founded.

Any group that seeks to oppress another under the guise of “patriotism” is both un-American and unpatriotic and should be treated as such.

“When anyone, not least a member of Congress, launches specious and degrading attacks against fellow Americans, on the basis of nothing more than fear of who they are and ignorance of what they stand for, it defames the spirit of our nation, and we all grow poorer because of it.” (5:15)